OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A friend took pictures on her wedding day because Macy Blake was focused on a cancelation message from Schirmbeck Photography.

“It was three hours before I walked down the aisle and I had no professional photographer to work with,” Blake said. “I had no time to get anybody there.”

Keeping half for engagement photos, the owner of Schirmbeck Photography, Kelsey Livengood, refunded Blake $500 and gave 6 News an explanation for missing the client’s big day.

“I made it 30 minutes into my drive and I had to pull over in a gas station,” Livengood said. “I had a seizure and went straight to the emergency room.”

Andrea Johnson is grateful her aunt took photos after the same wedding photographer didn’t show.

“She messaged me three hours before my wedding that she was not coming because her son broke his arm and she was in the ER with him,” Johnson said.

The photographer says it was actually her daughter with the emergency, but she refunded about $300 of the customer’s $500 in installments of $50 per week.

“If I owe anybody a refund, they’re more than welcome to come talk to me and remind me that I owe them a refund,” Livengood said.

But refunds aside, Christie Blankenship of CB Wedding Services says half a dozen brides have called over the past two years asking her to step in when Schirmbeck Photography has canceled.

“[They call me] anywhere from the day of [the wedding] to eight days before and their hearts are broken because they’re out of budget at that point,” Blankenship said.

Livengood says that’s not true.

“That doesn’t sound right to me,” Livengood said. “In my 12 years of doing photography, I’ve maybe had to cancel four weddings. Maybe.”

And it’s not just weddings, but family portraits, too. Lindsey Lundeen scheduled a family photo session last Halloween with Livengood.

“She canceled when we were already ready to go and was trying to reschedule again, but the schedules weren’t going to work out for us,” Lundeen said.

Livengood refunded Angela Bosak $80 after a similar incident.

“We showed up at our location 15 minutes before it was to start and she messaged me back on her business page saying that she had to cancel due to her husband taking the car,” Bosak said.

The Better Business Bureau gives Schirmbeck Photography an “F” rating.

“A lot of the complaints we forwarded to the company, which they haven’t responded to,” said Jim Hegarty with BBB. “We did notify them that we were investigating a pattern of complaints.”

But Livengood says she books 150 photo sessions for the holidays and 30 weddings per year.

“If I’m canceling a lot, I wouldn’t have the full business I have right now,” Livengood said. “I do have good reviews, people just aren’t posting them.”

And if forced to cancel, Livengood says she’ll develop a plan to make refunds, adding she’s paid back several clients already.

“They just need to come to me and let me know and I’ll make it right, bottom line,” Livengood said.

Some clients tell 6 News that they’re still owed money by Livengood, but special memories that deserve a trained eye are priceless and can’t be recaptured.

“Those are pictures I’ll never get back,” Blake said. “I’ll never be able to redo them.”

The BBB says it will work with Livengood to resolve the complaints if she asks for help. Livengood told 6 News that she plans to contact the bureau.

The Nebraska Attorney General has already provided mediation that led to the monthly repayment for one client.

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Richard Koehler, a former Daily Pilot photographer known for being the first to arrive at a breaking news scene — which earned him the nickname “Scoop” — died Thursday at his Costa Mesa home after a battle with cancer. He was 82.

Friends, family members and colleagues fondly recall a man who carried a camera wherever he went, snapping images of people, places and scenes, both for placement in area publications or for the sheer pleasure of watching life unfold before a viewfinder.

Richard “Scoop” Koehler in his office at the Daily Pilot in the 1970s. The lifelong photographer died Thursday at age 82.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

“My dad was a really quiet person, but he liked being involved — I think that was one of his ways to be involved in the community,” daughter Kerrie Conti recalled of her father’s photography Tuesday. “He felt more comfortable with his camera.”

Born on April 2, 1941, Koehler graduated from Newport Harbor High School, where he served on the school newspaper before graduating in 1959 and moving on to Orange Coast College.

As a young reporter for the Newport Beach News Press, purchased by the Daily Pilot in the 1960s, Koehler had already garnered the nickname “Scoop” by those familiar with his penchant for listening to police radio scanners, retired Pilot sports editor Roger Carlson recalled in a 2004 column.

Richard Koehler, third from left, with sons Todd and Tobin and daughter Kerrie Conti at Angel Stadium in January.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

“As a lifeguard dispatcher he would hear the police calls and off he’d go on his motor scooter, almost always the first, and often, the only photographer at the scene for the benefit of the News Press,” Carlson wrote.

The photographer worked for the Pilot from 1966 to 1986, faithfully capturing the comings and goings of residents, politicians and civil servants in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in between crime incidents and weather events. When newsroom darkrooms weren’t available, he’d develop photos in a processing lab built onto his home.

“He would take us on calls with him. We’d go to fires or accidents, and we’d sit in the car,” Conti recalled. “When I grew up, I thought it was normal for people to have a [police] scanner in their house.”

Koehler eventually segued from the Daily Pilot to the Los Angeles Times in 1987, where he would win numerous awards from industry associations all the way up until his retirement in 2006, according to Conti.

But the photos didn’t stop there. The retiree lent his talents as a freelancer for the Orange County Register and was still snapping pics in 2022, when he received a first-place prize from the Orange County Press Club for a photo of a fatal vehicle crash in Newport Beach.

Members of the Costa Mesa Police Department remembered Koehler in a Facebook tribute Friday, recognizing the friendships he forged with first responders over his lifetime of service to the community.

“If you have ever read the local papers, you must have seen a photo taken by Scoop. At a crime scene, he was the first photographer on scene, day or night,” the tribute read. “Many of us worked with him for years, and for some of us he eventually became like family. He will be missed — RIP, Scoop.”

Koehler was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Beryl, who died in November 2022 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, during which Richard was her primary caregiver.

Former Daily Pilot photographer Richard Koehler with his wife, Beryl, in November 2020.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

Diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2021, he initially underwent treatment with few symptoms. But his health declined after the death of his wife, and Koehler received hospice care in the final days of his life.

Conti said even during her father’s final months, local firefighters and police officers came to visit and pay their respects. When Koehler was in the hospital, his cellphone kept ringing with breaking news alerts and had to be silenced.

He is survived by son Tobin Koehler and daughter-in-law Sherrie, of Fountain Valley; son Todd Koehler and daughter-in-law Sarah, of Rancho Santa Margarita; and daughter Kerrie Conti and her husband, Steve Conti, of Costa Mesa. He also leaves grandchildren Sydney, Braden, Alexa, Katie and Lindsey.

Family members are making arrangements with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach for a memorial service at a date to be determined.

Richard Koehler, right, with wife Beryl, front, and the couple’s children and grandchildren in November 2021.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

“Photo Finish,” by Paula Roberts, received first place honors for sports photography in the Maine Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

The Lincoln County News took home 17 awards in the 2022-2023 Maine Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, including first place awards for sports photography, ad and page design, and Lincoln County Magazine.

The LCN website, lcnme.com, earned third place honors in the General Excellence – Digital category.

The awards were presented during the Maine Press Association’s annual awards banquet at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in South Portland on Saturday, Oct. 14.

The contest divides newspapers into three categories: dailies, and large and small weeklies by circulation. The LCN competes in the category for the state’s large weekly newspapers.

Entries are judged by industry professionals from outside of Maine, with this year’s judges working in Utah.

The awards ceremony is the final event of the Maine Press Association’s annual conference, which includes a full day of professional development and talks about industry trends.

Established in 1864, the Maine Press Association works to protect the freedom of the press and the public’s right to know, and to promote and foster high ethical standards in journalism.

A complete list of LCN honors follows:

First Place, Sports Page Design: Paula Roberts

First Place, Local Ad: “Pumpkinfest Sale,” LCN staff

First Place, Sports Photo: “Photo Finish,” Paula Roberts

First Place, Supplement/Special Section: “Farm and Table,” LCN staff

Second Place, Supplement Cover: “Live from Lincoln County,” Amber Clark

Second Place, People Photo:“Betsy Noyes,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Second Place, Feature Photo: “At Work,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Second Place, Editorial: “LEND A HAND,” Maia Zewert and John Roberts

Second Place, Supplement/Special Section: “Made in Lincoln County,” LCN staff

Third Place, News Photo: “Firefighter Memorial,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Third Place, People Photo: “Spreading Cheer,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Third Place, Game Story: “Medomak Valley football wins North Class C regional championship,” Paula Roberts

Third Place, Analysis: “Local food pantries navigate inflation to provide for holidays,” Elizabeth Walztoni

Third Place, Continuing Story: “Remembering Donnie Leeman,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Third Place, Arts/Lifestyle Feature: “Reaching for ‘the golden ring:’ 20 years of Heartwood Theater,” Bisi Cameron Yee

Third Place, Business/Economics Story: “Family-owned Fernald’s for sale,” Maia Zewert

Third Place, General Excellence, Digital: lcnme.com, LCN staff

New York University’s Kimmel Windows spotlights the photography of Ralph Ellison, groundbreaking author of Invisible Man and former NYU professor, in an exhibition running Oct. 26, 2023 through March 18, 2024. Ralph Elllison: Photographer is on view around the clock in 13 windows along Laguardia Place and West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village.

The exhibition features photographs from the book, on loan from the Ellison Archive at the Library of Congress.

Widely considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, Ellison won the National Book Award in 1953 for Invisible Man, a seminal work about being Black in America. He was NYU’s Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities from 1970 to 1979.

The exhibition draws from the new book, Ralph Ellison: Photographer, published by the Gordon Parks Foundation and Stiedl (2022) and edited by Michal Raz-Russo, the foundation’s programs director, and Dr. John F. Callahan,  professor emeritus, Morgan S. Odell professor of Humanities at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, and literary executor for Ralph Ellison. Raz-Russo and Callahan curated the exhibition.

While famous for his writing, Ellison experimented with photography for most of his life. He documented New York City in the 1940s, sometimes working alongside Parks, and he often used his images as notes for his writing. He sometimes worked as a freelance photographer to supplement his writing income. His body of work reveals a creative mind interested in experimentation and the representation of Black life in America.

Several public events are scheduled for Oct. 28 to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Two curator-led walking tours of the exhibition are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. Each should last about 45 minutes.

At 2 p.m, NYU alumni, writer, and founder of Audible, Don Katz, will join Professor Michael Dinwiddie of the Gallatin School for Individualized Studyfor a conversation about Invisible Man in the NYU Global Center, 238 Thompson St.

At 3:30 p.m. co-curators Raz-Russo and Callahan are featured in The Photography of Ralph Ellison: The Images, Life and Legacy in the NYU Kimmel Center.  The program is moderated by Michael B. Gillespie, associate professor in the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts.

The day concludes with Ellison, Ellington, Jazz & Swing, at 7 p.m. in the Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South. The NYU All-University Big Band will perform in honor of the friendship between Ellison and Duke Ellington.

About NYU Kimmel Windows | Art in Public Places

Kimmel Windows (founded in 2003) is located on LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street, one block south of iconic Washington Square Park in historic Greenwich Village. The 13 ground floor vitrines offer three exhibitions a year. The Windows operate under the umbrella of the Provost’s office, at the heart of NYU’s Art in Public Places initiative, which facilitates the display of art in outdoor spaces around campus. It offers professionally curated, thoughtful, and engaging exhibitions organized by NYU graduate students, faculty, departments, and programs, resulting in a program that represents the wide range of scholarly discourse at New York University.